Preface

The development of a population of cells that can invade tissues and spread to distant sites, resulting in significant morbidity, is what is known as cancer. Cancer is an abnormal growth of cells brought on by multiple changes in the gene expression, which result in a dysregulated balance of cell proliferation and cell death. A group of illnesses affecting higher multicellular organisms include cancer. The capacities to invade locally, disseminate to nearby lymph nodes, and metastasize to distant organs in the body distinguish malignant cancer from benign tumors. The acquisition of multidrug resistance and relapse pose the biggest challenge in the development of anticancer drugs. Traditional cancer treatments directly affect the DNA of the cell, but modern anticancer medications use molecularly focused therapy, such as focusing on proteins that have an aberrant expression in cancer cells. Conventional methods for completely eliminating cancer cells were found to be ineffective. Although targeted chemotherapy has been beneficial in treating some cancers, its efficacy has frequently been constrained by drug resistance and adverse effects on healthy tissues and cells. The aberrant tumor signaling, however, involves pathways for phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt, mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), Wnt/-catenin, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), and notch signaling. Targeted chemotherapy has been beneficial in some cases of cancer, but its efficacy has frequently been constrained by drug resistance and adverse effects on healthy tissues and cells. On the other hand, the majority of researchers are interested in the promising field of immunotherapy. Targeting cancer stem cells and microRNAs generally play a vital role in cancer medication development together with aberrant tumor signaling pathways. The main cause of medication resistance and tumor recurrence is recognized to be cancer stem cells. MicroRNAs are brief non-coding molecules that are 20-22 nucleotides long. It has the propensity to control a number of important signaling pathways that encourage cancer. Therefore, the current book discusses several of these important anticancer targets, such as cancer stem cells, microRNAs, (PI3K)/Akt, mTOR, Wnt/-Catenin, MAPK, STAT3, and notch signaling pathways. Additionally, numerous clinical trial phases for promising natural and synthetic medication candidates are outlined.